Teach Soap

Just wondering: my mother asked me how much it actually costs for me to make a bar of soap. So I sat down to get a figure per oz of soap (not that I would ever let her pay me). What I don't know how to calculate in is the shipping cost. How do you go about dividing that up between the oils, butter, fragrance etc?

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I go by the shipping cost divided up into ozs. Let's say you bought 1 oz. of FO and 6 ozs. of something else. The shipping was $7.00 (hypothetical). So you take the $7 and divide it by 7, which equals $1 per oz. Now let's say the 1 oz of FO cost you $4.00. It's 1 oz. so you add $1. Total cost for the 1 oz. of FO is $5.00.

Then you take the 6 ozs. of something else. Let's say that item cost $10. You know that the shipping was divided into ozs. and this is 6 ozs. 6 ozs. in shipping is $6. The cost is $10, the shipping is $6, so the total for this item is $16.

Makes sense?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thanks soapbuddy, it does help. Guess I will have to do alittle math. I am about to order some more scents and will do the work on that batch since I am not in a hurry for the information. Mom was just more curious. You are always so helpful!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I too thank you for this info Soapbuddy. I have been beating my head against the wall trying to figure out shipping, and you've made it so simple!!!
Silly me, I was dividing the shipping between the number of products. Clearly that wasn't working out when my pumice price doubled and my coconut oil didn't change by more than a couple of cents.

Thanks again,
Brandy

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

that is a good idea about doing it in ounces. I had to order from 3 places that charged shipping. I did include in into my body butter and whipped soap but didn't count the shipping from BB which was mostly FO's. I was trying to do it by how many products I got out of it, but FO is too hard to figure out that way! I never thought about adding it onto the whole ounce.

Im resolved to not being able to figure out exact cost of soap bars. Everything effects price. Shipping, FO and EO sizes ,did you get any of them on sale ?, do you mix blends? how much of each and what did you pay for each different one, did you add color? oatmeal? clay? beer? what did you pay for them? I give up. I'll just make soap.

Linda,
Focus on your strengths! That's what my business parter and I do: I make and price the line, she does all the design stuff and deals with the wholesale account ect. Every now and then, she pokes her head in my space and tries to help make a lotion or fill a lip balm tube (disaster at best) and I tell her to focus on her strengths and sometimes I poke my head in the office and get the same response from her.
If you're not currently selling soaps, don't worry about it! If you are, or plan to in the future, enlist the help of friends, family, or a professional and let them handle the "what it costs" part.

As for mom, tell her it's "Corporate Confidential" and she'll have to sign an NDA and a non-compete first, and then there's a one year wait period

Brandy

Just got my shipment from BB today, and after unpacking I took the invoice and did the calculations on my supples so that I had a cost per ounce. Now I have a base on each fragrance and can figure it all in. Very easy.
Denver Soap - you do not know my mom... she would sign and wait the year if necessary. She is far more stubborn than me!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!